Exciting rating category thread

[Javaness2]

I don't think that the analysis done so far, published on the site by the way, has shown any problems with the inclusion of handicap games. If it was a problem, I would have expected somebody to have taken Handi out by now.

Anyway, I disagree with 1 rule for dan, another rule for kyu.

[Mef]

...no handicaps in the top group...


Is it a logical modification? I struggle to see why, and I am not even sure what the point of it is.

Not that I agree with all the implications, but I can understand why such a modification would be implemented - if the ultimate goal of a class A tournament is to see who is the strongest player on the day of the event, it would seem that playing the top group's games as even is a necessity. If you have these games handicapped it means it's a forgone conclusion who is the strongest and you might as well have declared him or her the winner beforehand.

Now, I don't understand all the nuances of how a class B tournament is different than class A, but what I gather from reading this thread, a class B is not weighted as heavily in rating calculations? I'll admit that seems a bit odd to me, and I agree that it's odd that the lack of sufficient top level players affects how rated games of players not in that top group are weighted...

[Javaness2]

Not that I agree with all the implications, but I can understand why such a modification would be implemented - if the ultimate goal of a class A tournament is to see who is the strongest player on the day of the event, it would seem that playing the top group's games as even is a necessity. If you have these games handicapped it means it's a forgone conclusion who is the strongest and you might as well have declared him or her the winner beforehand.

Now, I don't understand all the nuances of how a class B tournament is different than class A, but what I gather from reading this thread, a class B is not weighted as heavily in rating calculations? I'll admit that seems a bit odd to me, and I agree that it's odd that the lack of sufficient top level players affects how rated games of players not in that top group are weighted...

That was an idea that I hadn't considered. I cannot really believe that it was what the EGF were aiming at though. It is not always the case that the top group games have to be even to find the winner. For example, in a tournament held in Ireland, there was a 7d. Now his nearest opponent was about 3d. So to make things interesting, they decided to add in a little (i.e. reduced) handicap. It seemed to go fine. My own opinion is that 4 stones is generally the largest acceptable width of a McMahon bar in the first place - so it's not really a crazy idea, what they did in this tournament.

The only difference between Class A and Class B is the weighting of the rating change. Say I win 100 rating points in my games, if the tournament is a Class A, I get those 100 points. If it's Class B, I only get 75, (Class C is 50).